Chief Justice of India T S Thakur made an impassioned plea in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to the government to help upgrade judicial infrastructure and start addressing the glaring problem of shortage of judges.

As Indian media report, what he said were vital to the country’s future-given the government’s emphasis on flagship initiatives such as “Make in India and Invest in India”.

Justice Thakur was addressing a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts, with Prime Minister Modi and Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda present on the dais.

His voice faltering at one point, Justice Thakur regretted “inaction” on the government’s part in strengthening the judicial infrastructure and increasing the judge-population ratio to tackle the “avalanche” of cases. He said that “it is not enough to criticize” the judiciary alone for the huge pendency.

In his speech, Prime Minister Modi said he understood the agony of the CJI and that the government was open to setting up a joint panel of representatives from the judiciary and executive to deal with pendency. “Jab jaago tab savera (better late than never),” he said. Incidentally, the Prime Minister was not slated to address the gathering, according to the schedule of the programme circulated by the Law Ministry.

WITH the Prime Minister watching, an anguished Chief Justice of India T S Thakur made an impassioned plea on Sunday to the government to help upgrade judicial infrastructure and start addressing the glaring problem of shortage of judges.

These, he said, were vital to the country’s future given the government’s emphasis on flagship initiatives such as “Make in India and Invest in India”.

“We are inviting foreign direct investment into the country. We want people to come and make in India…we want people to come and invest in India. But those whom we are inviting are also concerned about the ability of the judicial system in the country to deal with cases and disputes that arise out of such investments. Efficacy of the judicial system is so vitally connected with the development,” said Justice Thakur.

Justice Thakur was addressing a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts, with Prime Minister Modi and Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda present on the dais.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-narendra-modi-assures-cji-t-s-thakur-of-govt-support-in-increasing-judge-strength-2768056/#sthash.pESHnDT1.dpuf